A dawn very special..........

It's 3:45 in the morning, the alarm cries.... I rush up and immediately call up home. Ah! its not yet late, assures Maa. Am pacified, and there follows a deluge of instructions on where to place the cell phone! Cellphone, to be placed infront of the radio ( just a 12 year old Philips two-in-one that has already started to creak! ). All set, the communicator positioned, we place ourselves closest to my roomie's i-mate with speakers on full volume. The 'Vande Mataram' is due any moment and then the magic begins. But what's it that awakes me in the wee hours of this late September morning? Nothing, its 'Mahalaya' and 'Mahisasuramardini' is on air!

Flashback from late eighties, some twenty odd years back, i can trace back my first memory of listening to this masterpiece. That melifluous voice wafting through the dawn, 'Shiulis' on our neighbour's courtyard, pious elderly gentlemen heading towards the river.....and then that sudden realisation that Pujas are just round the corner. Years have gone by, but to this day, the spell captivates me. Life has taken many a turn, and brought me away from home, that small North Calcutta flat of two rooms to the southern city of Bangalore....but deep within that 'something' still remains. Something, that urges me to take the long winding route down memory lane, across the sweet shop on the corner of Northern Avenue, past the purple bougainnvilea vine next to the age old coconut tree and then a left turn by the then novice astrologer's, finally to that house I still call home, where a boy is glued to an ancestral Philips, apt in attention.... for the 'Mahisasura' must be slayed and the powers of good must triumph over the evil.

That child within, awaits each year for the October dawn, when he would walk along those memory lanes, those long lost ones, misted by the vagaries of time yet dotted with the dew bathed Shiulis.


*** 'Mahalaya' is the new-moon day in September-October, when offerings are made to all departed souls.

*** 'Mahisasuramardini' (the demon slayer) is a classic musical piece composed by stalwarts of Indian classical music, brodcasted by All India Radio Calcutta, every year on the pre-dawn hours of 'Mahalaya'. Soulful songs coupled with an enthralling rendition of Sanskrit slokas have captivated generations of listeners over the last 70 years. Of those luminiaries, a handful still live to this day, but the magic continues.

*** 'Shiuli' is an autumnal flower from Bengal, that ushers in the arrival of goddess Durga.
Snap courtesy: Anandabazar Patrika